DARK ANGEL'S REQUIEM
by Crono760
Summary: CHARACTERS FROM COTM, AND SOME ELEMENTS OF SOTN
1. Demise

DARK ANGEL'S REQUIEM, CAHPTER ONE  
  
  
  
After making the trek through the abysmal hallways and dungeons, Nathan finally arrived at a stairway pointing up. He had been underground for so long, that this was such a rare and pleasing sight. Nathan found himself staring at it in awe. The passageway was so very dark, lit only by a smattering of candles along the wall, and the darkness made Nathan run through them nervously. Even if the passageway had been better lit, it would not be any easier to see. The halls were filled with a mist that made the cold corridors colder than fingers of ice running along his spine. The mist was thicker than the heaviest fog, making it difficult for Nathan to see. With his sight dimmed, his hearing became his primary sensor, not much help, as every sound could mean death to him; even the rattling of some unseen mouse moving across the ground would send him into a state of cat like readiness.  
  
'Why am I here?' Nathan thought to himself. 'Who has failed to keep up their end of the bargain? Damn him, who ever it was, that wanted this. I can't do this, I am not ready, God help us if I am all that's left!' Nathan knew that now was not the time to be thinking of his inadequacies, but it was so hard not to. 'Why did you bring me with you, Morris! You know I am not ready, I am your apprentice, not a master.' There was no real point in this self-hatred, but Nathan found a smug feeling of calm came with it, that somehow admitting that he could not do something only drew him to see how much he could not do.  
  
Nathan knew that a mind far superior to his own thinking on levels that he could not begin to comprehend designed all these things. Nothing was in this place by accident, the mist, the sounds, the darkness, all put there to break someone's spirits, to make him turn back. Nathan however, had twisted inspiration to succeed.  
  
When he arrived at this place, he came only as apprentice to a master hunter who had once before stopped the threat of the king of darkness, one Vlad Tepe, better known as Count Dracula. Dracula was, of course, a nickname who's meaning was "son of the dragon." However, as the master and his two pupils entered the chambre where the abomination was to be awakened from his centuries long slumber, Morris, the master, was stolen into the hands of evil. He was soon to be used in the ceremony to raise Dracula, leaving only Nathan, along with the other pupil; Hugh, to stop it. Before they had an opportunity to do that, a cavern opened in the floor and they fell into the dungeons that Nathan found himself in now.  
  
They fell for a time that seemed so long to them that they could recall each thought if they attempted to. It made no sense to them why they were not killed in the fall, until they looked up, and saw that the fall that lasted an eternity was only about twenty feet. Feeling shaken, but empowered with their mission, Nathan began speaking to Hugh about how they would make their next move.  
  
Hugh pushed Nathan aside, declaring that, as Morris' son, he would claim the glory. "You were chosen by my father to be his successor, a mistake that a nostalgic fool made. I would have received the training and attention that you received if my Father hadn't fought alongside your parents when Dracula's minions attacked last. You should just be grateful that Dracula was not raised then, your parents were too weak to fight even his weakest generals. Think of what would have become of them if they had fought the dark king himself! Weakness runs through your blood. I am strong! I am the one who will be praised! I am the rightful heir to the hunter's throne!" Hugh spat the words out in loathing. "Now leave me alone, you vile, repugnant scum!" Nathan knew at once that Hugh was not speaking to him, that some unseen and evil force was slowly capturing his soul.  
  
That outburst was nothing like Hugh, they had been laughing together just hours before, before they entered this place. Nathan did not wish to fight Hugh, so he let him go.  
  
'Damn it Hugh!' Nathan thought. 'Why must you be so stubborn? What makes you think that I wanted this? What has gotten to you?' Nathan had so many unanswerable questions that he thought his head would burst trying to give them a sense of order. He was not ready to give up on his friend, or at least what was his friend. He did not know what was happening to Hugh, or how any of this was possible, but he felt he owed it to himself to at least find out.  
  
And so Nathan set out through the darkness, armed with only two ornate daggers and a sword. The sword was not a typical metal weapon, it was centuries old and was only wielded by those whose heart was pure, as a pure heart was linked to it. After so many years of use, the sword became a different weapon for each person, drawing its power from the lifeblood of its user. The hilt, showing master craftsmanship, was beautifully carved. An ivory snake's head adorned the bottom, with rubies for eyes, and the likeness of angels, their wings embracing each other, carved form the strongest oak. The handle was carved so to be an acceptable receiver for God's light. The hilt was not the only masterpiece of the sword, for the blade, lustrous and shining even in darkness, with the symbol: , meaning an end to evil, engraved into the steel.  
  
The sword was Nathan's means of defeating the hoardes of undead minions raised by the witch of suffering, Carmilla, in order to stop him. Carmilla had obviously not underestimated him. There were creatures everywhere, skeletons, were-wolves, anything under the sun that was horrific. Nathan was blazing through the dungeons, sword swinging in the faces of his adversaries, until he came up to a tiny snake-like creature called a bore-worm. Two feet long, eyeless, and with a claw coming out of where the mouth should be. It lunged at him, too close for the sword. Drawing the two daggers from their sheaths, he slashed out to either side, and missed the creature. This was not wholly unfortunate, as the worm landed at his feet, deflected from its original course. Nathan seized this opportunity, drew the daggers above his head, and plunged them into its body, causing the worm to writhe around like wounded animal, making some desperate and feeble attempt to get away from a predator, and then suddenly stop moving. Satisfied that it was dead, Nathan wiped the daggers clean and returned them to their sheaths before trudging on.  
  
Carmilla was the only person capable of stopping Nathan now, and as he stared at the stairway, he knew that she lay in wait at the top, ready to pounce on her prey.  
  
He trudged upwards, and as he got closer he began to hear a moaning. A deep and penetrating sound coming from the top, increasing as he ascended. The noise was so loud now that it almost tempted him to turn and run. 'No,' he thought 'I am an apprentice vampire hunter, chosen by Morris Baldwin who, with my parents, stopped Dracula from being raised years ago. I cannot give up. My parents did not give up'  
  
He rounded the top, running now, sword poised and ready. Carmilla saw him, said "well, you survived my soldiers, I am impressed. But I'm afraid that your pitiful existence must come to an end, sooner or later, and I prefer the former over the latter."  
  
Nathan looked at her in disgust, examining his enemy, as he had been taught to do. "Remember Nathan, if you underestimate your opponent, or over estimate yourself, you have lost the battle before you begin it". This was some of the earliest advice that Morris had given him, and he knew that it would not be easy to underestimate such a powerful thing as Camilla.  
  
She wore a crimson dress, so red that blood would be shamed by its intensity. Her blue eyes were a sharp contrast to her jet-black hair, and her lips stood out against her pale skin, which took on the whiteness that occurs in a person changed by evil forces.  
  
He knew that she was a demi-immortal because of the rewards given to her by evil, and also the speed and reflexes far beyond his own. Despite all this, it was her ability to turn others into full vampires, set to obey only her, and that would destroy any hope of restoring peace to the world. Nathan had no idea how this worked, Carmilla was not a vampire, yet she had this ability. He had heard rumors of it, when someone becomes so entwined with evil, they are able to use it for their own spoils. Taking on the abilities of a vampire while staying human, or even controlling death itself. This was not to say that she could not be killed, an evil force superior to hers, or a force of goodness that was strong enough, could do it.  
  
By the way she was looking at him, Nathan knew she had something planned, and as a twisted smile appeared on her face, a look of horror appeared on his. "Surprise!" she shouted, pointing to a dark doorway. "Have fun with your toy, but don't play too long, I tire of watching children." She laughed.  
  
Nathan stared in fear at what came from the door. It was Hugh, with skin paler than Carmilla's. Nathan knew what had happened, he was now one of them.  
  
"You are over confident, Hugh, you don't even have your sword drawn." Nathan sneered.  
  
"Fool!" Hugh shouted, "those who are truly strong like me, do not need weapons." With that, Hugh lunged toward Nathan so quickly that even Carmilla could not track him. He had Nathan in an arm lock and immobilized him before Nathan even got a chance to place his hands on his sword. Nathan tried desperately to break free, but it was in vain. The vampire once known as Hugh Baldwin claimed its first victim. Nathan Graves, successor to Morris Baldwin, master hunter, had become what he had been trained to hate. Nathan's sword fell to the ground, and it became Carmilla's newest trophy. Vlad Tepe, Dracula was soon to be raised, and no one on Earth could stop it. 


	2. Unknown feelings

DARK ANGEL'S REQUIEM, CHAPTER TWO  
  
"Finally!" Carmilla shouted with an air of triumph, "my lord will be raised, and he will reward me for my loyalty."  
  
She looked over to where Hugh and Nathan were standing, and then moved over to them. Her cold eyes were staring at Nathan who a look on his face like no other Carmilla had seen before. It was a mixture of fear and pain, reaching climax as the transformation completed itself. He looked up at her, his eyes now gray, silver hair and pale lips and face. His appearance would make one, at first glance, assume they are looking at a corpse, if it was not moving, that is. However, sometimes movement is deceiving, Nathan Graves was, in effect, dead and buried, and this seemingly mindless shell is all that's left.  
  
Carmilla lay her cold, slender hand on his shoulder, said "my dear Nathan, how bad for you. You tried so hard, but did not even last ten seconds in a fight with my prized pupil." In the instant she said that, a barely noticeable flicker of mirth swept across her stone-carved face. "That's right, Hugh was my first, you are now below him in my eyes, how ironic for you. In life you both tried to catch your master's attention, and now you have no choice but to accept what I have told you. Now that you know your place, it is time go, our king awaits." With that, Carmilla motioned towards a door, and she and her two generals began to walk towards it.  
  
Before they got too far, however, Nathan wretched in agony and flung two vials of blue liquid that were in his belt to the ground. "Holy water", Hugh laughed. Nathan had forgotten it was there. The water is quite beneficial to any being of good intentions, but it has an aura that repels evil. Any evil deep enough can control the effects, and this is why it is impossible to simply carry around holy water and be immune to Dracula. Both Nathan and Hugh were not yet strong enough to withstand it, so the job of disposing of it fell to Carmilla. Carmilla picked up the vials and destroyed them.  
  
Without further distraction, they left the room into the dungeons that lead to the ceremonial chambre where Dracula was housed. This second time through, Nathan had no reason to feel fear. His newly attained vampire senses made seeing through the mists effortless and his new sense of hearing told him where everything was. His new strength and speed made it impossible for anything down here to hurt him, and the mist was no longer cold; it comforted him. It was clear to him now that whoever designed this place was not trying to stop intruders from coming in, it was to keep residents from wanting to leave. Nathan found that "hell" was a word that could no longer be attached to this place, and saw only one word would do, "home".  
  
They entered a chambre unlike any other room in the castle. Nathan had to show his astonishment, and gasped standing with wide-eyes. The ceiling was almost eighty metres high, and the room was double that in length and width. The stained glass that would normally depict biblical scenes in a church now portrayed most disturbing images of hell, and places that were progressively worse after that. The unshakable stench of the dungeons was gone, replaced with incense and a bouquet of other, surprisingly pleasant odours that even Nathan with enhanced senses could not put a name to. The silence that filled the room was as eerie as what was about to happen in it, yet it fit the room like a glove. Morris, at the far side of the room and shackled to the wall looked up at the forms entering through the door, and counted three.  
  
"Oh God, not both of you", he sighed, tired and defeated. Nathan and Hugh saw Morris, and took it as an invitation for a meal. They ran to him, and tried to bite into his neck, pushing each other aside, frenzied by greed and hunger. Carmilla scolded them. "Restrain yourselves children" she said. "He is the life-force that will raise our lord, you cannot feed yet". They glared at her as children do when their mother denies them a candy. "Do not worry, once Dracula is here, he will allow us to feed on the entire world, you will be completely satiated. We must not wait any longer."  
  
Having said that, she began to set her circle for the requiem that would allow her to raise her dark king. Placing Morris in the centre, and other objects such as herbs and candles around him. She began chanting in a tongue unknown to everyone but a few followers of her brand of evil. Her chant translated into:  
  
We call you to rule us,  
  
We are here to follow your every whim,  
  
Send us forth to bring darkness unto the light  
  
And forced all our adversaries to serve you.  
  
This was repeated three times. The room began to glow with darkness. She changed as the darkness came into the room, growing claws, and fangs, so large and baring that she could not close her mouth. The coffin, which housed Dracula, began to float, raised by lightning from an unseen source. Morris too began to change, thinning, almost turning into a skeleton, and then vanished. Dracula was freed from his repose. He looked at Carmilla, and smiled.  
  
Vlad Tepe, Dracula, tall and slender, silver skin and hair, green eyes, and thin pale lips. Standing almost seven feet high, and adorned in a black robe, with a blood-red cloak.  
  
'What is this world that I have awakened into?' He thought to himself, still silent. 'And what do I see but two fresh vampires as a welcome gift.' He scanned his surroundings, his castle was different from before and he guessed that was because it had been a long time before he was raised again. Finally he spoke, with a voice so loud it scared Nathan, Hugh, and Carmilla, and made them take a step back. "How long?" Were the first words from his mouth in nearly two centuries.  
  
Carmilla answered "one hundred and ninety-three years, Master." After that, the most surprising thing happened, Dracula, the King of Darkness, smiled. Ever so faintly, and it disappeared a few fractions of a second later. "It has been so long since someone last called me that, I will enjoy it each time someone speaks thus to me." He walked over to Carmilla and the others, said "it will not be long before the entire world calls me master."  
  
Dracula had been raised. Within his ranks of Generals were a witch, and two more full vampires, both who were trained to kill what they had become. Dracula's chambre was full, now, waiting for the right moment was all that was needed before the dark reign could begin.  
  
* * *  
  
Nathan was not adjusting to his new existence as well as Hugh, or even Morris. The evil in his heart would never be able to withstand the forces of good that governed his soul. As a result, he was torn into obeying his master, and obeying himself.  
  
'No!' Nathan thought, his mind now taken from the vampire stillness, into a state of human consciousness, it felt to him as if the two sides would soon explode out of him, and he had no idea what would happen then. 'I was human, I AM human!' the vampire calm swept over him, and he felt himself trying to regain control of his own mind. Inside of him, emotions were starting to re-emerge, and after two long months wearing this wretched mask, all he felt was loathing. He hated Dracula for existing, and threatening what he stood for, as a human. He blamed Hugh, for being so easily taken, and Morris, for not putting up much of a fight. Most importantly, he blamed himself for what had happened. He lost to Hugh, and he blindly obeyed the orders that stemmed from a evil source he could not comprehend.  
  
"I helped kill people." Nathan said a woman he was about to change. He was on the hunt for Dracula, and, save the woman, he was alone. In the beginning, not long after he was changed, the few vampires went out at night, hunting for more to add to their ranks, and Nathan was on such a mission now. The woman he had in his grasp was a fighter, but she was a mortal, she could not hope to win against Nathan. Before he had a chance to bite into her flesh, his human side took hold, and he repeated his words, "I helped kill people".  
  
The woman, although in fear for her life, was intrigued with this creature before him. She knew it was capable of destroying her, but she saw a person, not a monster. He was as terrified as she was. This thing was not evil, it was good, and she decided to try to tap into his good side. "I am Maria" she said, and extended her hand to touch his shoulder. It was cold, and felt like ice in her hand. Immediately Nathan jumped back, the warm touch of this woman was so far from the eternal cold he felt, it shocked him. "You are not afraid of me?" Nathan asked, still away from her.  
  
"Yes, I am. But, you are not like the others, I sense you hate what you have become." Maria said these words with so much ease, it was somewhat harder for Nathan to comprehend them. 'This mortal, this, human, can see what I have been seeing since my transformation' Nathan thought. He was silent, observing what had been able to see into his soul. Maria looked tired from the fight they had, and had a few battle wounds to show what had transpired. She was a warrior; strong, but short, curious green eyes to go along with dirty blond hair. The way she was looking at him, a look of pity, made Nathan think that she was the most beautiful thing in the world. But that was his human side, he was a vampire now.  
  
Nathan knew he had a duty to perform, but he could not deny his human side. Both were so deep within thought that neither of them saw Hugh in the shadows. He leaped towards Maria, and she screamed in terror.  
  
"Leave her alone!" Nathan shouted, surprising himself as he said it. He lunged at Hugh, and thrust his sword into his arm. Hugh sprang back, looking at the wound in his shoulder, and then at Nathan, with sword in hand. Maria ran behind Nathan for protection, but Hugh just stared at him. Using his sword was a very impulsive, very human move. Nathan should have attacked Him without it, as a vampire would, and this told Hugh that Nathan was human where it meant most; his soul.  
  
Knowing that he was no match for combine human and vampire intellect and skill, Hugh turned to flee, leaving Nathan and Maria with a final warning. "This will be your undoing Nathan, as long as I can become stronger, I will hunt you for what you have become." With that, he ran into the night, vanishing within seconds.  
  
"So, I suppose you're an outcast now" Maria said, smiling. She knew that because of what Nathan had done, he would now be banished from the vampire world, and forced to live amongst humans. This was no the reason that she was smiling though, she had spent the past months in fear of vampires, and now found that what she had been fighting would help her. "You are extremely unique, Nathan. Is that what he called you?" she said, and before he had a chance to respond, she continued. "This is perfect for us, you can help us fight them, you will be our strongest weapon."  
  
Nathan replied "but, I have not agreed to help you." He said this with some difficulty, he knew he had no choice, but how could he face his former kind with confidence knowing what the vampires had been doing? In the two short months after Dracula was raised, over one thousand humans in the area had been taken. And even if the humans did accept him, Nathan knew that it would be nearly impossible to fight off an army of that size. After thinking in silence for some time, he looked up at Maria who was waiting patiently for more words. Finally "I want you to know that if I do help you, we will most likely fail, and we will have to fight the armies, but not destroy them. Any vampire will be changed back once Dracula has been killed, you must remember this."  
  
"Do we have another option?" Maria asked, not really expecting an answer. She continued, once again not allowing Nathan to answer. If they were to work together, Nathan would have to get her to change that. "Let's go, I suggest we get as far away from here as possible until we're ready."  
  
And so they set off, far away from Dracula until they were ready to take him on. 


End file.
